"The Ultimate Shogun", the least motivated great person in Japan
I am Iwai, the representative of UTSUWA Publishing.
Are you familiar with "The Elusive Samurai" serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump?
It is a story about the protagonist from the Hojo clan, regents of the Kamakura Shogunate, fighting against Ashikaga Takauji (the first shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate) (of course, there are fictional elements, but it is based on historical facts with historical supervision).
While the protagonist and his allies are certainly charming, many people must have been far more intrigued by the final boss in this work, Ashikaga Takauji.
After all, he is
・unmotivated
・lacks a sense of mission
・is a pushover
, making him a being far removed from the "samurai" we imagine.
So, when I looked for works depicting Ashikaga Takauji, I found one!
Can people truly never understand one another?
Reading it... (Hereafter, I will proceed with my impressions assuming the content is historical fact).
Even if the goals and aspirations are the same, there are times when "how one sees the world" and "the methods that arise from that worldview" do not align, leading to a falling out, and I felt that is a very lonely thing.
I felt that way.
This story is depicted through the alternating perspectives of Ashikaga Tadayoshi (Ashikaga Takauji's younger brother) and Ko no Moronao (a family line that served as secretaries to the Ashikaga family).
Both of these men shared the same aspiration: "to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate (or rather, the Hojo family) that feared its power was being threatened, and to create a world for samurai, a world of greater peace and tranquility."
For a time, the two were of one mind, pouring their heart and soul into establishing a samurai government by propping up Ashikaga Takauji, a man with "no motivation, no sense of mission, and a pushover personality."
However, tossed about by power, loyalty to their lord, loyalty to the Imperial family, the security of their own house, ambitions for territorial expansion, and relationships with their retainers, they eventually had a falling out and ended up fighting each other.
As a reader, because you understand the feelings of both men, there is a stinging pain in your heart as you watch their "trivial misunderstandings" grow into something much larger.
No matter how much they share the same aspirations, no matter how much they care for their country or their comrades, there are times when, due to their upbringing and life experiences, they simply cannot understand each other, no matter how hard they try.
That is something that can be said of the modern world, where wars and conflicts are occurring in various places, and it is likely true of the human relationships in our daily lives as well.
Such thoughts about the fleeting nature of human life welled up within me (I am the type of person who is easily influenced by the works I read).
Get a grip, Ashikaga Takauji!!
Right up until the end, Ashikaga Takauji is depicted as such a spineless figure that you constantly find yourself thinking, "Get a grip, Ashikaga Takauji!! I'm talking to you!!!"
He hates everything—becoming a lord, fighting in wars, engaging in politics—and he hardly thinks about the state of the world at all.
He is as relaxed as a modern person on their day off.
However, that comes from a consistent way of life born of a unique upbringing: "a resignation toward the world, and an expectation of nothing from anyone, including himself" (though that is not to say he is composed or enlightened).
Because of that attitude, even in situations where people would inevitably be swayed by emotion, he alone could calmly view the big picture, which led to his outstanding skill in battle and helped him gain more allies.
He is more human than anyone, yet also more supernatural than anyone.
Perhaps it is precisely because such contradictions coexist as a matter of course that he was able to become a great historical figure.
Ashikaga Tadayoshi (Takauji's younger brother) compared himself to his brother and said the following.
My head is always filled with petty logic. I am a boring man. In short, that is me. ...I try to hold onto my life as if it were precious, carrying it all the way to the coffin. Before I know it, I am always preoccupied with protecting myself. ...Such a person, no matter how sharp their mind or how skilled they are in martial arts, will ultimately fail in a critical situation. ...If things become even slightly disadvantageous, I immediately lose my nerve. Logic runs ahead, I cannot risk my life, and in the end, things that should succeed do not. This is likely the same even outside of battle.
*By the way, 'sessho' means 'a difficult place, such as a steep mountain path'.
Although Ashikaga Tadayoshi writes this, he is actually an amazing person who effectively established the Muromachi Shogunate, yet he belittles himself in comparison to his brother (basically, he is constantly furious at his sloppy brother).
However, reading this self-assessment by Ashikaga Tadayoshi, I imagine it hits home for many people, doesn't it? (It hit me hard.)
People who become over-intellectual, thinking things like 'Isn't there a better, more correct way?' or 'This doesn't fit with logic or theory, so let's stop,' based on their own limited experience or knowledge from books.
People who think too much and are not good at diving into the unknown or unfamiliar, like saying, 'Whatever happens, happens!'
I can't help but empathize.
History is not a subject to be memorized, but a story of people.
When I read historical novels like this, I really feel that history is a series of human stories.
History studied in school is a subject of rote memorization.
I feel that even the story in this book was only written in textbooks as something like "Ashikaga Takauji became Sei-i Taishogun and opened the Muromachi Shogunate."
However, if you read this book, you will clearly understand how many stories there were leading up to that point.
And you will also clearly understand the reason why the Onin War, which is said to be Japan's largest civil war, occurred.
Finally.
In the past, I used to worry about things like "how close is this historical novel to historical fact?" and I would think things like "is there any point in reading this if it's fiction?"
Ashikaga Takauji was a person from nearly 700 years ago.
No matter how many historical documents you collect, you can never know his "true self," and even with historical documents from that time, there is a high possibility that they are not the "correct image" depending on the position of the person who wrote them (does a correct image of a person even exist in the first place?).
However, if you only state the facts, no one would have any interest in it.
In that sense, I think historical novels are a truly wonderful genre.
In the future, I fantasize that it would be interesting if AI could recreate people from that time by combining things like:
・Historical documents (prioritizing those written from that time to later eras)
・Academic papers created from historical documents
・Historical novels
・Information about surrounding figures
and so on.
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